Want the options of letting students claim portions of your office hours or advising slots? Do you run a service on campus that could benefit from having people sign up for appointments within blocks of time you pre-determine? Google Calendar offers the ability to set up appointment slots in the version it provides to institutions like Carleton.
To use Google appointments, select a span of time and then select the option telling Calendar that this span of time will contain appointments. As you set up your appointment slots, Calendar will give you a link to your publishable appointment calendar. When another person clicks on that link and logs in, they’ll see their own Google Calendar with your appointment times overlaid, helping them select an appointment that doesn’t conflict with their other appointments. As people claim appointment slots, those claimed slots will no longer appear as options for subsequent people. As your time is claimed by appointments or other meetings, slots disappear from the available appointments calendar from that link you sent out. You can even “invite” other people to your appointment slots so that if someone claims an appointment it schedules more than one of you for the meeting.
Check out Google Help, YouTube, or Linda.com for video walk-throughs.
